Introduction to Major Topics in Asian Civilizations: East Asia

Intro to major topics in East Asian civ.

Syllabus

Introduction; geographical foundations
Confucius and an early critic
Daoism
Later Confucians
Legalism and the creation of the empire
Maintaining the empire: theory and practice
Buddhism in East Asia: basic doctrines & reception in China
Buddhism in China: major schools; challenges to tradition
Early Japan
Buddhism in Japan
The aristocratic culture of Heian Japan: culture and power
Samurai rule in medieval Japan: responses to disorder
Neo-Confucianism in China and Korea
Change and tradition in imperial China
Early modern Japan: intellectual and institutional foundations of the Tokugawa shogunate
Change and tradition in Tokugawa Japan
Reformist thought in Korea
East Asia in a new world: change and continuity
China enters the modern world: challenges and responses
Creating a new China: new visions and new problems
Nineteenth century Japan: from Shogunate to nation state
New international relations in East Asia
New ideologies and new politics in Japan and Korea
World War II and its consequences in East Asia
The People's Republic of China: consolidation and transformation
The People's Republic of China: post-Mao changes
Japan and Korea since World War II